Shore Up Your Business: Rural Colorado Workshop Series Finale in Telluride!

Over the past four years, the Telluride Venture Network (TVN) and the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder have hosted the Rural Colorado Workshop Series (RCWS), a workshop series dedicated to providing college-level business education from award-winning professors to entrepreneurs in rural Colorado. This year, TVN and RCWS are hosting their fifth and final year of the series! Entitled Shore Up, attendees will learn from the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship’s Erick Mueller and Brad Werner how to leverage creativity, keep ahead of the curve of new technology, tighten up financial skills, and more for their current venture.

Anyone is welcome to come together and attend RCWS hosted by TVN in Telluride. Attendees will hear from an all-women panel of entrepreneurs including Stephanie Breedlove, founder of Care.com HomePay. Stephanie took the leap of faith and left the corporate world to build her startup while simultaneously raising two young children. She eventually sold HomePay for $50 million. The panel also includes past participant Natalie Binder, who now runs Camp V in Naturita, Colorado. This camp was inspired by her desire to transform a coal-impacted community into a place that connects people through art and experience. Last but not least, the panel also includes past RCWS participant Olivia Pedersen, who was inspired to start her company Sustaio through the sustainable work she did in her master’s program centered around human-based design. She is pioneering an application that rewards users for their sustainable outputs and inputs. All three panelists have immense knowledge about the business world and are eager to share their insights with the 2023 RCWS attendees!

Marketing Director for Telluride Venture Network, Annemarie Jodlowski, loves seeing people from southwestern Colorado get support for their ventures from high-level business professionals. She says 

“It's fantastic to have such high-caliber professors facilitate the weekend, especially with their exceptional understanding of the challenges faced by rural entrepreneurs in our region. While Brad Werner and Erick Mueller cover a lot of ground over two days, they do so in such an enthusiastic and engaging manner that many of our participants return year after year." 

On top of collaborating with the Deming Center for this workshop, the Telluride Venture Network supports their community with quarterly boot camps, investment strategy, programs geared toward Latinx entrepreneurs, and even access to capital for local businesses. They also provide mentorship programs, where entrepreneurs can seek guidance from CEOs, attorneys, marketing experts, and others. All of these resources can be found on their website.

Through the partnership with the Telluride Venture Network and the Deming Center, entrepreneurs in southwestern Colorado continue to grow their businesses and gain needed skills. Erick Mueller says

“It is always amazing to see the cohort of change-makers and people coming together from Norwood, Telluride, and the surrounding communities. The cohorts are always collaborative, and [it’s] inspiring to see [them] grow and innovate. I am certain that the groups that have participated in RCWS will elevate and continue to elevate the Southwest Colorado community!”

The Telluride Shore Up Finale will take place at Wilkinson Public Library on Friday, October 6th, and Saturday, October 7th, 2023. Click here to register
for this event and learn more about other RCWS locations by visiting the Rurual Colorado Workshop Series website.